In wireless communications, MIMO processing is typically done at baseband and in the digital domain. FIG. 1 illustratively represents such a prior art system 10. Transmit symbols 10 are passed through a baseband digital MIMO processor 20 before transmission. MIMO processor 20 is configured with a pre-processor/pre-coder. Processor 20 utilizes, for example, a pre-coding matrix, which determines the number of spatial streams, the spatial multiplexing, and beamforming gains. System 10 also includes an antenna array for transmitting the digitally processed data. In large-scale antenna systems (e.g., massive MIMO in 5G wireless systems), the digital processing can be significantly high, which adds cost, complexity, increased point of failure, energy consumption, etc.